3.20 Headline Features

[Allan Day <aday gnome org>]

Hi all,

We are gearing up to write the 3.20 release notes. As usual, there will be two pages of headline features, with around 6 headlines per page. The first page is supposed to contain our biggest features.

Right now the draft structure looks like this:

Main page

Wayland ready

XDG app - installable nightly apps

Operating system upgrades in Software

Shortcuts windows

Editing in Photos

Polari improvements (lots of improvements to list)

Second page

Music controls in the notifications area

User reviews in Software

Cantarell improvements

Redesigned mouse and touchpad settings

Better Maps app (lots of improvements to list)

Nibbles has been redesigned

Other possible headlines include:

Per-application location access controls in the shell and control center

Questions and discussion

• How do the two pages look in general?
  
• Wayland is a tricky sell - it is unlikely that distributions will switch to it by default for this release, and there are some missing bits and pieces. Nevertheless, this is the first release where we can recommend using Wayland to the majority of users.
  
• XDG app isn't particularly a user facing feature at this stage. The most relevant new feature is the availability of nightly apps [1]. However, these nightly builds don't get much attention, and they require the command line to install, so are somewhat technical. In general I don't like selling user features if they require a terminal!
  
• Polari is somewhat niche in that it is an IRC client, which raises the question of how prominently we should promote it. I think that 3.20 will be a strong release for it though.
  
• Music controls in the notifications area: there's really not very much to say here. It's not a complex or multifaceted feature.
  
• Cantarell is just a font, so it might seem like a detail to some. The changes do make a big difference, but will it be noteworthy to our users?
  

Allan

[1] https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/SandboxedApps/NightlyBuilds